1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to rods of filter material and more specifically, to environmentally disintegratable cellulose acetate rods for filtering tobacco smoke.
2. Description of the Related Art
After a cigarette is consumed, it is often discarded improperly. Conventional tobacco smoke filters can require years to disintegrate and degrade when discarded, due to the highly entangled nature of the fibers, solvent bonding between the fibers, and the slow degradability of the cellose acetate polymer. It has been reported that tobacco smoke filters are the leading item collected during beach clean-ups. In fact, legislation has been proposed which would ban cigarettes which are not biodegradable due to the mistaken perception that filters do not degrade.